Comprehension Fail

1) You do realize she's a Finn right? How the hell is she going to get into trouble in Sweden?

2) "hurting" the US, the last I checked was not a crime. Especially when "hurting" only entails posting what US representative actually did or said. This is called reporting and/or journalism, you should look it up.

Kristen Stewart???

I call BS

They say this for every version they ship (I think they even tried it for Vista for a little bit until they had to admit it was a complete flop). I don't believe this for a minute though as I only know a couple of people who actually have 7, the rest are still plugging away with XP.....

Not a very good scientist then are you?

Speaking as a scientist myself, you should think of changing careers. Most science I've worked on starts out by trying to make a prediction based on poor data. I then go out, test it, and gather new data. I then go back and look at my original assumptions and refine my experiments. With each iteration my predictions will come closer to matching the data.

"I really am glad I'm not a climate "scientist" (although I am a scientist) because what they are attempting to do is very difficult indeed. In fact, I find it incredible that anyone is even trying to make accurate predictions of future climate (a known hard task) based on a motley collection of heterogeneous historical thermometer readings on which it is now impossible to impose adequate quality control"

Seems OK, but what new features does it actually offer?

Hi All;

I've tried out Win7 on a new laptop, and it seems to function OK. It's definitely not any faster than XP. But the real question is, what new features does it offer? I couldn't find any benefits over XP, so really, what's the point in upgrading?

I second the "Stop with climate change"

The Reg's coverage is always one-sided (fingers-in-the-ears, la, la, la it can't really be happening if I can't hear the evidence) and begins to make me wonder if all the other articles published here, especially concerning IT should be re-examined. After all, if you can be so bloody wrong about climate change, who's to say there is any accuracy in your IT articles?

Re: But it's natural

Re: Too many now

I'm sure other people will chime in before me, but what the F#@I are you talking about??? If you compare the amount of security vulnerabilities and the length of time until they're patched FF still beats IE hands down.

Commenters make me sad

It really does make me fear for the human race reading so many comments which are so vehement in their denials of global warming. I'm a scientist and I know how our theories change as we get more data. Part of being a scientist is being able to change a theory if the data doesn't support it. Currently, the data does support global warming (to exactly what extent I don't think anybody knows). Putting your fingers in your ears and shouting loudly that it's just not true makes you sound like an ignorant, uneducated buffoon.

Wireless Signal

What happens if there's EM jamming in the area where the gun is used? Alternately, could somebody send a signal to tell all of the shells in the gun to go off at once, permanently removing the guns owner and any close by comrades?

Re: Justice delayed is justice denied

How long has he been in the legal system ~3yrs? Do those 3 yrs count against any further punishment? How much more can they (do they want to) possibly punish this guy? And what damage did he actually *cause* (ie. not clean-up effort to secure wide-open systems but actual computers he crashed/files he destroyed?)

@AC

"Right now on my PC Firefox is using over 200MB of RAM with 13 tabs and Internet Explorer is using 2.6MB with 2 tabs open - I actually switch back to Internet Explorer to do some quick task - what a stupid situation. Fix it!"

While I agree that Firefox does have a memory leak problem, how on earth does your IE only use 2.6 MB?? Mine uses 25 MB with zero tabs open.

Can this information actually be used?

I have used the German banking system for some time and have found it light-years ahead for the North American systems. From this article though I wonder if this information has any real use. In order to transfer money you need either a chip and PIN, or a TAN number (one-time password for on-line banking). I have the names, addresses and BLZ (Bank routing number) of several of my friends so that we can transfer money to one another. However, I'd never be able to take money from their account without also possessing either their bank cards, or their on-line passwords and TAN lists.

Bell Canada

"Upset about Bell Canada’s system for allocating bandwidth fairly among internet users"

This is what's started it all. Bell Canada is throttling all users irregardless of congestion. I am not a high bandwidth user. However, on the rare occasions that I do require bandwidth I'm throttled to 30 kB/s for 20 hours out of the day. THAT is what's unacceptable. And our governing bodies have just voted that this sort of behaviour is OK. While I don't agree with Bit Torrent seriously damaging the net at large, something has to be done so that users can actually get the bandwidth that they pay for!

Throttling even when no congestion

Ridiculous

"The TSA is in the process of installing advanced technology X-ray machines throughout the country. The new machines should be in place by the end of 2009, but it will take an additional year for them to be outfitted with software that can identify threatening liquids."

Speaking as a Chemist

I've been doing chemistry research for ~15 yrs now, and every time I hear these Tang/peroxide bomb comments I simply don't know what to think. I can't think of any conceivable way that this could form a better explosive than a solid explosive (think dynamite). For people who like using google to try to figure these things out. Start looking up peroxide + citric acid (or any organic acid for that matter). Good luck finding any science related articles which refers to their being explosive.

That said, peroxide does have a nasty habit of forming organic peroxides. However, good luck in controllably making them into an explosive device.

@Dodgy Geezer

"Just one of the huge number of problems associated with climate science as practiced in the 21st century is that the base data is often not made public, but instead 'peer reviewed' by a few of your friends. Then a completely spurious claim is held to be 'proven'."

Speaking as a scientist who publishes papers, I can say that this statement is complete BS. If I ever tried to publish a paper without including the data, it'd be deep-sixed by the journal editors before even making it to the peer review stage.

I'm not sure if the commenter understands how science publications work...

Sometimes wiki is good

The only time I seem to use wikipedia is to find info from the hard sciences. As far as the posted information for science on wikipedia is concerned it is almost always 100% correct. But maybe that's just because it's such an objective topic it's hard to fudge it up.

Speaking as a Chemist (not a pharmacist for you UK'ers)

I'm just going to ignore that silly "exploding" water bottle, which is just a 2L bottle popping from excess gas pressure.

I believe that the main "liquid explosive" that they were trying to protect against was TATP (Triacetonetriperoxide). And, as anybody who's actually made this knows, it's not easy, especially if trying to do so in a plan washroom. The solid purified form is much stronger, and wouldn't even be screened out.

It utterly boggles my mind that this senseless ban is still in place as it is most definitely NOT based in science, ask ANY chemist (except for a chemist who might be working for an American/UK government think-tank of course).

@ Alex Barlow

"If a manufacturer decides that they wish to sell something as a bundle only then why should they be forced to break that into its components?"

If the bundle that they sell comes with a message that part of it can be returned if it's not wanted, then who are they to refuse? They're breaking the very terms that they're selling the bundle under.

One Question about the UK Law

So if you had a grudge against a co-worker/boss etc. in the UK, could you simply send them a link that you know would display child porn images, and then have them arrested? Even if they had no intention of ever viewing such images?

I don't understand how looking at an image is a crime, a person can't help what is put before their eyes. The act of searching out child porn required intent however, and makes more sense as a crime....

Re: Let's Hope

If you need to cheat you're not good enough

Somebody has already said it, but it needs to be said again. Not every person is cut out for university. I started in a program with 400 students, only 12 of us graduated 4 years later. If you find the program you are in is too hard for you, then it means you don't have the natural ability to be doing it and you have two choices:

1) Switch to another program more suited to you

2) Work harder to EARN your marks

I can't stand cheating students (I've caught several now) and I also can't stand students who whine that since they paid for their degree they should get it!

Sorry for the rant, but cheating students devalue my degree which I had to work to earn!

Hardly Seems Fair

Ok, just let me get this straight. This guy purposely sabotages Navy computers which are critical to the US Navy and only gets 12-18 months whereas Gary McKinnon is facing up to 45 years in jail for looking for aliens while not sabotaging any critical computers???